A.D. 1776 
—1850. 
for tm- 
proved 
transport 
were met 
hit the 
levelop= 
ment of 
ratlway 
snterprise, 
312 
LAISSEZ FAIRE 
it failed to keep pace with the increasing demands which had 
arisen in the manufacturing districts. There was such a 
songestion of traffic on the canal between Liverpool and 
Manchester that the proprietors were able to charge very 
1eavy rates. Any scheme, which offered a prospect of estab- 
ishing a successful competition and bringing about a fall in 
the cost of carriage, was sure of an eager welcome from the mill- 
owners; and the project of building a railway, to be worked 
by locomotive engines, was readily taken up, and obtained 
Parliamentary sanction in 1825. George Stephenson had 
already rendered steam-traction a practical success, on a small 
scale, at Killingworth; and the Stockton and Darlington 
Railway had been empowered to use the new motor in 1823. 
The object of the projectors was to obtain a better mode of 
hauling heavy goods, and they seem to have had no idea of 
she high rate of speed at which the trains would run; 
Stephenson had estimated it at fourteen miles an hour. 
The formal opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 
saddened as it was bythe accident which caused Mr Huskisson’s 
leath, impressed the public mind with the extraordinary 
sossibilities of the railway engine. It was at once obvious 
shat the new system was not only preferable for hauling 
heavy goods, but for rapid communication as well; the mails 
were transferred to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
soon after it was opened, and year by year, one or another 
of the well-appointed coaches, which had been the subject of 
so much pride, was forced off the road. Ever since 1830 the 
building and improving of lines of railway has gone on 
steadily ; goods can now be profitably carried at rates which 
were impossible before, and there has been an extraordinary 
saving of time as well. As Professor Levi wrote in 1872,“ Before 
she railway was established between Liverpool and Manchester 
there were twenty-two regular and seven occasional extra 
coaches, which if full would carry 688 persons. The rail- 
way carried in eighteen months 700,000 persons, or on an 
average 1,070 per day. The fare per coach was 10/- inside, 
5/- outside; by railway 5/- inside, 3/6 outside. By coach it 
s00k four hours to go from Liverpool to Manchester or wvice 
versa, by railway 12 hours. The rate of goods was 15/- per